Feeling Better Each Day

I seem to have adjusted to caprylic acid after 3 days. No more headache, nausea or cramping gut pain. Likewise caprylic acid eliminated my longterm diarrhea after only one dose. I finally have 'normal' regularity (2x, rather than 6x daily). However, I still wake up with cramping, gas pains, maybe bacause I take probiotics with dinner. Nevertheless, I prefer feeling bloated after dinner and early morning to taking smaller doses of probiotics during the day, which make me bloated all day long. Great choice! LOL

In my last post I considered taking smaller amounts of caprylic acid spread through the day to decrease the side effects. However, I changed my mind and decided to stick with 2 capsules 2x a day. Then I noticed that my doc had prescribed 2 CA capsules 3x a day when I treated 2 previous bacerial infections. After my experience with his not aggressively treating C-diff (which influenced my multiple recurrences from c-diff spores), I wondered why he had not prescribed more CA to treat achromobacter. So I called his office to inquire about the lesser amount of CA. He reassured me that the current bacteria can be treated with a lesser dose.

All that 'could' be good news, but I haven't emotionally recovered from my 9
month c-diff nightmare. So I can hardly believe I will ever be completely well
again. Nevertheless, I feel better today with no medication side effects and
much less symptoms of the achromobacter infection.

I did have a little pity party after I received my latest diagnosis. After all I've had one gut infection after another since 2006 (klebsiella and enterobacter cloacae bacteria, cryptosporidium parasite, candida fungus, clostridium difficile bacteria, and now this new character 'achromobacter'). I can understand how I contracted those other 'bugs', but achromobacter is rather rare, although usually nosocomial (you get it in hospitals). So I might have gotten it from the Lahaina clinic where I got my vancomycin for c-diff. Still I think "ENOUGH ALREADY". I just want to be well for a few years.

Feel Crappy Twice or 4 Times Daily?

I slowly recalled how much I disliked side effects of caprylic acid, when I took that for 2 other intestinal bacterial infections. My doc prescribe 2 CA capsules 2x a day plus probiotics. I vaguely recall that the side effects of nausea, headache, cramping pain and bloating subsided after a few days. However I may be confusing caprylic acid with nystatin, both of which are used for treating candida. (I finally eliminated candida after 5 months of nystatin, which probably made me more susceptible to c-diff.) Nevertheless, I wondered whether I would experience less intense side effects from CA by taking one capsule at equally spaced intervals during the day (like every 5 hours). I also emailed my doc to ask whether that would decrease side effects reactions, help me adjust more quickly to CA and possibly more effectively treat the achromobacter.

I didn't receive a reply from my doc yet. So I tried taking one CA capsule with my morning fruit snack, which is not really breakfast, just a few bites of fruit and 1/2 cup of apple juice, enough to keep me satisfied for about 2 hours. Then I experienced all the usual CA side effects, maybe a bit less intense. I had planned to take the next CA capsule 5 hours later. However, I recalled that yesterday I felt crappy after taking the 2 CA capsules with breakfast and then felt much better before I had to take 2 more capsules with dinner. I actually didn't feel that bad last night.

Then I realized taking one capsule every 5 hours would just make me feel crappy all day long, rather than 4 hours after I take the 2 capsule dose. So I took the other CA capsule with breakfast. I noticed eating higher fat foods (almond butter and hazelnut milk) did reduce the intensity of CA side effects. So I'll return to my original plan of 2 capsules with breakfast, 2 capsules with dinner plus 2 probiotics with dinner for a total of 2 weeks. I hope that treatment plan knocks out this achromobacter. I'm not happy about suffering bloating, cramping pain, nausea and headaches for 2 weeks. Hopefully, the more intense side effects will decrease or even disappear over the next few days.

Caprylic Acid Stimulates Ghrelin??

After taking 2 doses of caprylic acid, I'm experiencing all the familiar side effects, including nausea and headache. However, I suspect my ongoing cramping gut pain is caused by the achromobacter infection, rather than the CA treatment. Nevertheless, I wanted to read more about caprylic acid, so that I know what to expect.

After 'googling' several CA topics, I read that CA stimulates the ghrelin hormone which increases appetite. I certainly haven't noticed that yet. However, I look forward to ghrelin stimulation, because right now I hate eating and feel much worse after eating. The CA induced nausea makes me NOT want to eat. So I'm drinking lots of ginger tea to prevent getting so nausea that I throw up.

Nevertheless, I know that my body will adjust to CA in a few days and I will no longer experience nausea, headaches and hopefully no more intestinal cramps. Maybe by then the ghrelin stimulation will kick in. So I can regain whatever weight I lose during the next few days when I'm eating just enough to stop the hunger. Going for long walks to relieve intestinal cramping appeal to me more than eating or sitting here feeling nauseas and having a pity party. LOL So I'm leaving now to walk around my local lake and feed the coots.

Very Sick But Still Hopeful

I'm so glad I talked to my doctor in person, rather than exchanging emails about treating my newly diagnosed Achromobacter infection. I had soooo many questions about that bug, like why I acquired it, how achromobacter could give me symptoms which are similar to my c-diff symptoms, how I can treat achromobacter without getting a c-diff recurrence, how can I trust that caprylic acid (my chosen botanical treatment) won't give me a c-diff recurrence, etc., etc. I booked a short (10-15 minute) consult and ended up needing 30 minutes to feel reassured that I will recover from that new bug.

Maybe because c-diff was such a long nightmarish infection, with 7? recurrences, I began to believe that I cannot quickly recover from achromobacter. However, my doc's answers to my questions helped me understand what I now have and how I can eliminate it. I want to forget that I blindly trusted him when he first gave me flagyl to treat c-diff. LOL

I took my first caprylic acid dose plus probiotics tonight with dinner. Amazingly I immediately lost that chronic 'fecal urgency' or the 'I have to go all the time' feeling. However, I still had intense stomach and intestinal pain. I suspect I'll need to take CA for a few days to kill enough bacteria to decrease the pain. However, I now understand how this bacteria causes similar, but also different painful symptoms than c-diff caused. So I'm confident I'm experiencing (and treating) a different bacteria.

Although I keep thinking "Here I go AGAIN with yet another gut bug and yet another treatment period", I finally successfully eliminated c-diff. Hopefully I can eradicate achromobacter during a 2 week course of caprylic acid. However, I have enough CA and probiotics to continue for 3 weeks and/or taper treatment if I'm uncertain.

I wish that DNA Microbial testing lab gave 'frequent flier' miles to people who purchase multiple tests from them. I mean after 3 tests, I should get some kind of discount or be allowed to buy tests at the 'bulk rate'. LOL Oh well, maybe I'll recover from achromobacter and actually feel well for awhile. I can always hope, despite my history with gut bugs.

IBSTC Appointment

I felt much worse this morning. I have more intense cramping pain (which woke me up at 3am), nausea, chills and diarrhea. So I decided to make an appointment to see my doctor at his clinic rather than exchange emails. I already planned to buy caprylic acid to treat achromobacter at his clinic, along with more probiotics. However, I read online so many bad reports about achromobacter bacteremia (blood infections) that I want to personally ask my doctor what he knows about treating that bacteria. I hope he knows more about achromobacter than he knew about recurrent c-diff.

Meanwhile I wonder whether I really recovered from c-diff. Maybe my last stool test just reflected no active c-diff bacteria, rather than no c-diff spores. I fear that treating achromobacter with any kind of antibiotic (even botanical caprylic acid) may trigger those c-diff spores to morph into full blown bacteria. I sure don't want to pay $350 for another stool test to determine whether I still have c-diff after I treat achromobacter. SIGH

Achromobacter/Alcaligenes Species

I never received the emails with attachments of my test results. However, I did receive the paper copy with today's mail delivery.

The good news is that my c-diff level was <0.01 or negative for c-diff. The bad news is that I seemed to have acquired a new opportunistic bacteria (occurs in people with compromised immune systems) called achromobacter or alcaligenes species. I suspect that overwhelmed my good bacteria, after vancomycin destroyed everything in its path while killing c-diff, even though I took probiotics along with vanco. The diagnosis of that new bacteria would explain the cramping pains, bloating, fatigue and nausea which I now experience. Of course the test result reflected what was in my gut (stool sample) 3 weeks ago. Who knows how prevalent that bacteria is now?!

The lab test results provide a list of pharmaceutical AND botanical (herbal) agents which can eliminate that specific bacteria (or to which agents the bacteria is sensitive or resistant). Although the pharmaceuticals include many antibiotics which influence c-diff recurrence (grrr!!), the botanicals include one (caprylic acid derived from coconut oil) which I previously successfully used to eliminate 2 different bacteria (klebsiella and enterobacter cloacae). So hopefully I can just take some caprylic acid plus probiotics and eliminate my most recently diagnosed bacterial infection

Still Waiting ...

This morning I called my doc's office to verify whether they had received my DNA Microbial Stool Test results (which will tell me whether I still have c-diff). The receptionist said that she emailed the results (by email with attachment) at 9:40am this morning. An hour later I still had not received that email. 2 hours later I asked her to send the results with a black/white attachment, which might not take so long. 2+ hours later I still had not received any emails from my doc's office. So I asked his receptionist to snail mail me a paper copy of the results. I probably won't get those until Monday afternoon. At 4:30pm I again called my doc's office and asked the receptionist to try emailing me the test results again before she left.

So when/if I ever get any of her emails, I'll know for sure what 'bugs' were in my 'sample' on January 4 (almost 3 weeks ago now). That's the problem with those tests. If I'm really sick, I get even sicker (as with c-diff) by the time I finally get the results and ask my doc for his 'treatment' recommendation. I suspect I had c-diff last March, because I had symptoms then. However, my doc dismissed my symptoms as 'stress' and recommended I see an accupuncturist. Nevertheless, I persisted and requested that DNA test, but I began to doubt my intuition and delayed picking up the test for a few weeks.

I finally did that test in early May and didn't get the results until the end of May. So I didn't start treatment until June. 7 months later, I retested, because I'm tired of guessing whether I still have c-diff symptoms. Now knowing that the results are available, but I can't see them seems worse than not knowing when the lab will mail the results to my doc. BTW my doc's assistant isn't allowed to read my results and my doc is out of the office today. GRRRRR!